maggiethecat

I spent two months drinking Argentinian Malbecs. Wow, they're big.

Um, I doubt that anyone needs ten pie birds, but I won't ever stop hoarding -- er, collecting them. I hoard butter -- when it goes on sale I'll fill the fridge with it, then go buy some more. Just in case.

I'll never forget the astonishment of the breakfast Mrs. Ridder, mother of my friend Edith, served to us after a sleepover. Whaaaaa? Open faced sandwiches, made by each family member, on rye or rusks. There were plates of cold cuts, lots of Gouda, applesauce and hagelslag -- chocolate shot. Her brothers sprinkled the hagelslag on Gouda and salami. This was exotic, and back then I'd have preferred a bowl of Cheerios. The thing was, the Ridder kids had lived in Indonesia, not Holland, for most of their lives, thence to Canada. That "weird breakfast" went with them. As a protein for breakfast person now, I think Mrs. Ridder and her compatriots got it right -- just hold the hagelslag. ( I love the Dutch language!)

I want some. It takes care of all my baking needs. I especially like it foil side up for fish en papillote. Edit: Never diss Martha. She still knows everything.

Pepsi forever, the fully loaded Pepsi.

I don't shop for groceries at chains, ever, and the accuracy of the pricing is just one of the many reasons. If you shop at Publix, Dominicks, Albertsons or Whole Foods the people who are checking you out don't have to recognize the product or the price, because the stock is so limited that everything is digitized, often wrong. If you shop at a mid-sized independent with a huge inventory -- like the ten kinds of garlic and fifteen kinds of apples at Caputos, the checkers have to actually identify the product and price it accurately. Likewise H Mart, Tampicos or any supermercado. The bigger the variety, the better the training for check out folks. It's just another reason -- apart from the dull-ass choices and the high prices, never, ever to shop at a big chain, and I'm including Whole Paychex.

I'm with Linda: they're a dish best filled and sauced a la minute at home.

Poached egg on buttered toast.With herbs and leftover sauces I can tweak this forever.

Thanks, pax!

My mother's "Scotch Omelet" -- really a bread pudding made with a couple of cups of cheddar. Four ingredients (plus s&p) to bliss.

Steven, were you listening in to our five minute ago conversation? I've just returned to my gas range after cooking for two months on my Dad's plain ole coil electric stove top. It took me two weeks to get the, er, range on it, but I figured out that I had to cook most things on Med-Lo. It's a hot thang. I put on a pot of water to boil for rice tonight -- two minutes on my Dad's range, four minutes on mine. This lifelong gas apostle grumbled.

Erin, I don't have the book, but your pictures and descriptions will have me ordering it when I get back to the USA. We'll cook along.

This story in the Trib on Grant Achatz is the most information about the chef I've read in one story. Who knew that his feud with Trotter is still ongoing? And I think his idea for his next restaurant, um, Next, is outtasight brilliant. The "reservation" system, not so much. Read it here.

I don't think we've ever, ever bought meat, fish or poultry unless it was on sale.Or fruit, vegetables or beer, for that matter. I plan my menu around the grocery store flyer. But chicken legs went on sale for 69 cents a pounds two years ago -- the sale price is now 1.29. Whaaaa? Butter and flour go on sale before Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, and I try to buy enough butter so that the only other item that will squeeze into the freezer is an ice cube tray. Sigh, It's a late Easter this year.

I call it Cream of Orange Soup. To your sauteed onions and garlic, add chicken stock and any combo of these: squash (orange-fleshed,)sweet potato, carrots and rutabaga. Puree with a dash of cream and season as you like it -- I like garam masala. (Note to self: Throw in a little orange juice next time.)

Or a "weenie?"

A huge slug of Islay with a Champagne chaser. (Can't I be lying in bed surrounded by family, friends and Rafael Nadal, instead of Death Row accomodations?)

We've added some impressive numbers: 178,970.

D'accord!. I loved A la Crepe B. Likewise The Coffee Mill on Mountain St.--real espresso from a baroque pocelain machine long before one could buy it at any gas station. The Hungarian food was cheap and terrific. In Chicago I think the Berghoff was at its best during the seventies -- ah, for the corned beef hash sandwich or the sauerbraten.

I can smell them on my hands for a whole day afterwards, no matter how hard or often I scrub my hands with anti-bacterial, lemon juice, water or anything else. I wear disposable gloves to prevent this issue; works very well! I use gloves, too. And I de-vein with sharp scissors rather than a knife or special tool. Then I rub the cut edges with a paper towel. Quick, easy and efficient. OK, I have a high tolerance for ick. If you do too, here's the quickest way to devein shrimp: grab the vein from the center of the cut head end between your fingernails and pull. Keep a paper towel handy to wipe the veins off your hands. Perhaps my high ick tolerance also prevents me from noticing the lingering scent of shrimp veins on my hands. :blink:

The coffee/chocolate and coffee/milk combos have recently become so painful that I doubt if I'll ever eat a brownie with a glass of milk again -- sob! Bicarb and water does the trick.

Making crepes: pour, brown, flip, fold. And again. And again.

French: haute, basse and in-between.

How odd: I've made three of these in the last two weeks. The lemon pudding you describe, Denver Chocolate Pudding and the French-Canadian Pouding Chomeur. The link is that in all cases a liquid is poured over the cake batter before it's baked, then settles into a sauce on the bottom.

Nick, I'm not only excited to see you blogging -- squee! Nick! -- but I'm loving the summer view from Sydney as I freeze every body part in Ottawa. My daughter and her husband spent a week in Sydney last winter and were bewitched, seduced and wowed by the fish and the peeps. They thought it was the most laid-back ville on earth. (Big ups to Pam for arranging the recent mind-boggling blogs.)I appreciate your link to my old piece on soft boiled eggs; any egg-loving cook knows eggs ain't easy. Aussie cooking, about which I don't know enough, seems heavily weighed to seafood protein and umami. Will you have time to write about the sweet side?